Maurice George Moore, (10 August 1854 – 8 September 1939) was an Irish author, soldier and politician. Early life Moore was the second of four sons born to George Henry Moore of Moore Hall, County Mayo, and Mary Blake of Ballinafad, County Galway. His elder brother was the writer, George A. Moore. He was born at Moore Hall, and was educated in Mayo and at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he trained as an officer. Military service Moore joined the British army as a lieutenant in the Connaught Rangers on 13 June 1874. He saw action in the Xhosa Wars in the late 1870s and the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, was promoted to captain on 1 November 1882, and major 8 February 1893. During the Second Boer War he was present at the battles of Ladysmith (October 1899), Colenso (December 1899), Spion Kop (January 1900) and Vaal Krantz (February 1900). He was highly regarded and decorated. For his service in the war he was promoted a brevet lieutenant-colonel on 29 November 1900, and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the South Africa honours list published on 26 June 1902. Following the end of the war in June 1902, he left Cape Town on the SS Canada and returned to Southampton in late July. He was appointed in command of the 1st Battalion of his regiment with the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel on 16 July 1902, and later in 1902 received the rank of brevet colonel. Nationalist activities However, his horror at the creation of concentration camps in South Africa and ill-treatment of Boer civilians by the British military led to him writing anonymous articles which were published in the Freeman's Journal, which brought attention to the matters. He retired from the British Army on 16 July 1906. Moore was a fluent Irish language speaker and had spoken it with fellow members of the Connaught Rangers Regiment. He was a supporter of the Gaelic League. In 1903 he started evening schools in County Mayo, teaching the language and Irish history, supporting the 1909 introduction of Irish as a compulsory subject for the National University of Ireland. He was heavily involved in rural development and was an early supporter of the Irish co-operative movement. A member of the provisional committee of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, he was made the organisation's Inspector General, spending much of